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Our NHS has faced one of the biggest challenges in its 72 year history over the last few weeks, and doctors have warned that it is far from being over.

As the whole world slowed down, doctors, nurses and health care professionals had their work life sped up.

We spoke to the people behind the PPE masks about how they have adapted their work and home lives to help not only for their patients, but for their own wellbeing too.

Dr Raja Biswas

Dr Biswas has worked as a doctor for almost 30 years (Image: Dr Raja Biswas)

"I found that elderly patients just looked at me without understanding what I was saying and who I was."

Healthcare workers across the Welsh NHS are still getting used to a strange new reality of wearing full PPE when treating their patients.

"They can't see your face behind the mask which also makes your voice muffled so it also makes it very difficult for them to hear us too," said Dr Raja Biswas, a consultant physician at the Royal Glamorgan hospital.

Dr Biswas specialises in elderly care, so many of the patients he cares for at the hospital already have hearing and sight challenges to overcome.

"A lot of our patients can't see well or can't hear well, and they are not around anyone familiar as there is no family visiting. It is completely different to the normalcy of life which we take for granted.

"We can't do much about the sound, but by putting the pictures of ourselves onto our uniform, it at least gives them a face to look at and remember.

Dr Biswas, who has worked as a consultant at the hospital since 2006, said his patients have been very appreciative of seeing the faces behind the masks of doctors on the ward who have adopted the idea.

"Whatever we do in the NHS, it is for our patients."

NHS staff have been rightfully commended for their work during the coronavirus pandemic and many have spoken openly about the fears surrounding a shortage of PPE as well as the disproportionate affect the virus is having on health care workers from BAME backgrounds.

For Dr Biswas, he just wishes the UK Government had been honest about the PPE shortage from the beginning.

"If they were honest and said they don't have any, I think people would have respected that much more. We have to work as a team."

Dr Biswas cares for patients on the Covid-19 wards at the hospital, and said that some of his colleagues have had the virus.

"The moment they are better they are coming straight back to work. I have even said to them to stay home for a bit longer. I think initially, when this all started around February, there was a big sense of guilt if you were not working.

"But now everyone is coming to realise this is a long term thing. It is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to rest and take time for our own wellbeing."

Dr Biswas, who is in his early 50s, came to the UK from India to work as a doctor in 1995, and said he has been welcomed by Wales with open arms and considers the country his home now.

He lives with his wife and 15-year-old daughter in Cardiff, who he is trying to keep on track with her studies since her GCSEs were cancelled.

(Image: Dr Raja Biswas)

The hospital he works for has ramped up their staff wellbeing support since the coronavirus outbreak, installing various recharge rooms and providing access to consultant psychologists.

As well as this, Dr Biswas has been making sure that he takes care of his wellbeing at home by ensuring he switches off from work and has been appreciating his downtime taking walks along the Taff Trail.

"My wife is a psychiatrist which helps because she understands the pressures of working in health care but she also understand the things which I am going through.

"The other thing that worries me a lot, and I think it is the same for any doctor from overseas, my parents are elderly in India.

"Usually I would go home to see them around every three months and now I don't know when I will see them again.

"I am here, if something happens to them I can't even go back. I can't go back to see them or care for them so I am worried about that.

"But I know they are more and more worried about me than themselves."

It's time to thank our NHS workers

It is something that has touched all our lives. From cradle to grave, the NHS and the incredible professionals within it who care for us, is a part of British life.

Today, more than ever, we should cherish those who dedicate themselves to our care, as they work tirelessly to care for people in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

We have never needed them more. So let’s show them some love, and create a living map of gratitude from every corner of Britain.

Visit Thanks a Million to drop a heart on the map to say you appreciate the efforts undertaken daily in the NHS. Thanks a million, NHS workers - we love you

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At home, Dr James, has used the extra downtime from not being able to go out by reading a lot more, and avoiding social media.

"I found every time I would go on Facebook I would see other doctors discussing coronavirus, it just feels so overwhelming. On my days off, I try not to check my email too, you do have to make a conscious effort.

"I think you need the time to sit and talk about it, but I spend my time in work thinking about it and learning about it. I have tried to put that in the work box and try to force myself to switch off."

The health board have also rota'd in mandatory time off for the staff, to ensure they get the much needed respite.

"My husband is a doctor as well so we can offload on each other, its good because we understand the stress."

Dr Karina James with her daughter Alys (Image: Dr Karina James)

Life for the doctor's two children, three-year-old Alys and two-year-old Daniel, also looks very different. Dr James, who usually works part time is now picking up extra shifts.

"On our days off before you always felt like you needed to be out with them, but now we are at home and spending time together very differently, it makes you realise you don't always need to go out to spend money.

"And I have got so much better at keeping in touch with people. Me and my husband have been doing a weekly quiz with our university friends, we never usually speak to them this much.

Dr James, who graduated from Cardiff University in 2009, added how this has shown just how resilient the NHS is.

"There are going to be some positives we can take away from this, like how people are so able to adapt and work on something totally different."

Clare Wright

Clare Wright is the person in charge of wellbeing across the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, and as well as setting up recharge rooms areas across all their district hospital sites, Clare has also overseen the introduction of mindfulness and wellbeing sessions.

"It is about concentrating on the now and not worrying about the future, we are encouraging staff to seek out peer support which we know is very beneficial, to stay active physically which is good for your mental health.

"It is about making sure that staff have enough time to recover when they are not in work both physically if they feel exhausted and mentally."

Clare said they are taking things day-by-day, but ultimately the support they put in place now will have a long term impact on the wellbeing of staff.

"We are looking to buy in training on TRiM, a programme that was developed in the armed forces. It is a peer support approach designed to help people who have been through a traumatic event.

"The evidence shows that this peer to peer support really works, and we want to make sure that is available for our staff."